Top 500 Marcus Aurelius Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them.”

— Marcus Aurelius

152. “For any particular thing, ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature?”

— Marcus Aurelius

153. “Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.”

— Marcus Aurelius

154. “Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.”

— Marcus Aurelius

155. “Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.”

— Marcus Aurelius

156. “The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That’s all you need to know.”

— Marcus Aurelius

157. “Poverty is the mother of crime.”

— Marcus Aurelius

158. “If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.”

— Marcus Aurelius

159. “Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are composed harmoniously, and together – they compose the world.”

— Marcus Aurelius

160. “Past and future have no power over you. Just the present – and even that can be minimized.”

— Marcus Aurelius

161. “It doesn’t hurt me unless I interpret its happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to.”

— Marcus Aurelius

162. “The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly, And be patience with those who don’t.”

— Marcus Aurelius

163. “Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.”

— Marcus Aurelius

164. “Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.”

— Marcus Aurelius

165. “When pain is unbearable it destroys us; when it does not it is bearable.”

— Marcus Aurelius

166. “Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.”

— Marcus Aurelius

167. “If you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.”

— Marcus Aurelius

168. “I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.”

— Marcus Aurelius

169. “Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.”

— Marcus Aurelius

170. “How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.”

— Marcus Aurelius

171. “Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.”

— Marcus Aurelius

172. “Let no act be done without purpose.”

— Marcus Aurelius

173. “Limit time to the present. Meditate upon your last hour.”

— Marcus Aurelius

174. “Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”

— Marcus Aurelius

175. “The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.”

— Marcus Aurelius

176. “No man is happy who does not think himself so.”

— Marcus Aurelius

177. “All things fade and quickly turn to myth.”

— Marcus Aurelius

178. “The intelligence of the universe is social.”

— Marcus Aurelius

179. “People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time-even when hard at work.”

— Marcus Aurelius

180. “Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.”

— Marcus Aurelius

181. “Leave other people’s mistakes where they lie.”

— Marcus Aurelius

182. “Take me and cast me where you will; I shall still be possessor of the divinity within me, serene and content.”

— Marcus Aurelius

183. “Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.”

— Marcus Aurelius

184. “Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.”

— Marcus Aurelius

185. “Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.”

— Marcus Aurelius

186. “Do not expect Plato’s ideal republic; be satisfied with even the smallest step forward, and consider this no small achievement.”

— Marcus Aurelius

187. “We are born for synergy, just like the feet, just like the hands, just like the eyes, just like the rows of upper and lower teeth. Working against each other is unnatural, and being annoyed and turning one’s back is counterproductive.”

— Marcus Aurelius

188. “Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.”

— Marcus Aurelius

189. “If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.”

— Marcus Aurelius

190. “Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.”

— Marcus Aurelius

191. “You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.”

— Marcus Aurelius

192. “Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about.”

— Marcus Aurelius

193. “The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it.”

— Marcus Aurelius

194. “Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.”

— Marcus Aurelius

195. “Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”

— Marcus Aurelius

196. “Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.”

— Marcus Aurelius

197. “Love the people with whom fate brings you together.”

— Marcus Aurelius

198. “Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.”

— Marcus Aurelius

199. “To breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”

— Marcus Aurelius

200. “Purge your mind of all aimless and idle thoughts, especially those that pry into the affairs of others or wish them ill.”

— Marcus Aurelius